NBA star boasts he could beat UFC champion Jon Jones with one year of training
NBA star James Johnson feels he would need just one intensive year of training in order to be competitive with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
The massive 6'7", 250lb basketball player is currently without a team after leaving the Indiana Pacers earlier this year, but has made the wild claim he could beat a fighting legend regularly considered the greatest of all time with just a year of coaching. Johnson is reported to have a black belt in karate and an undefeated record in kickboxing and MMA.
Johnson has claimed he fought in an amateur MMA competition during his final year of high school, as well as during his early college years. But the claim is dubious given a lack of any sort of record of the bouts, and the conflicting nature of the reports where the rumours began.
It would also be worth noting how reckless a player pursuing and eventually undergoing a full-ride scholarship with professional ambitions would be to be competing in such dangerous extra-curricular activities. But coming from a family of legitimate karate prowess, he believes that he would simply need to work on the ground game in order to get the better of the cage's best.
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"I rock with [Jon] Jones," he told the NBA Rookie Life with Ryan Hollins podcast. "I would need a year [to have a fight with Jones]. My standup game is great but what we all know about Jones is he's a collegiate wrestler - really good on the ground and that's not my forte.
"I can get on the ground, [but] to his level? I'm not there yet. I'd definitely need a year to work on counters and defences against it so that we can stay on our feet. I think I could beat him, for real. But like I said with a year of training defence - I just need ground defence.
Do you think James Johnson at 36-years-old could ever get good enough to beat Jon Jones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"He started learning how to use your hands and your feet - what? - after college? Like, I've been punching and kicking since I was five, six years old. The opposite for him because he's been wrestling for that long. Learning all his wrestling moves - as long as I can keep him from going on the floor, I win."
If Johnson's claims are correct, then it is possible that he amassed an unbeaten kickboxing record in his youth, which would require significant honing in order to be effective against the likes of Jones. There have been varying levels of success for NBA stars transitioning to fighting in the past, although he does have more of a background than others.
Deron Williams defeated NFL legend Frank Gore on the undercard of Jake Paul's rematch with Tyron Woodley at the end of 2021, just over a year after his fellow basketball star Nate Robinson's infamous debut against the YouTuber. The three-time Slam Dunk contest winner was viciously knocked out by Paul after around six months of training on the undercard of Mike Tyson's comeback fight.
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